Missouri Bill Blocking Obamacare Passes Out of Senate Committee

A bill that would effectively cripple implementation of Obamacare in Missouri recently passed out of committee.

SB546 would ban Missouri from taking any action that would “compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system.” That means the state would be banned, by law, from operating a health care exchange for the federal government.

The Small Business, Insurance and Industry Committee voted “do pass” on Feb. 18.

The Bill modifies the “Health Care Freedom Act” passed by Missouri voters in 2010. SB546 restates Missouri’s public policy that allows its citizens to choose or decline any mode of healthcare without facing penalties and fines and bars the State from implementing and operating a health care exchange. It imposes a suspension of license to sell insurance in Missouri if the insurer accepts any payment that “would result in the imposition of penalties contrary to Missouri’s public policy…” and requires the State’s Attorney General to file actions against any insurer violating this public policy.

Subsection 4 prevents State officials from cooperating with Obamacare enforcement by stating “No public official, employee, or agent of the State of Missouri…shall act to impose, collect, enforce, or effectuate, directly or indirectly, any penalty in the state of Missouri that violates the public policy set forth…”

SB546 borrows from significant portions of the Tenth Amendment Center’s four-step plan to nullify Obamacare on a state-level, Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano noted that such actions were not just legal, but effective.

“If enough states do this, it will gut Obamacare because the federal government doesn’t have the resources…to go into each of the states if they start refusing,” he said.

Based on the long-standing principle known as the anti-commandeering doctrine, the legislation is on strong legal grounds. In four major cases from 1842 to 2012, the Supreme Court has consistently held that the federal government cannot “commandeer” states, requiring them to enforce or expend resources to participate in federal law or regulatory programs.